1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a hair grip having two elongate jaws connected by a spring-loaded hinge, which can be placed in the hair to preserve the hairstyle.
The jaws have two respective first longitudinal edges, generally connected by the spring-loaded hinge, and two respective other longitudinal edges each of which has a plurality of longitudinally spaced teeth.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In some hair grips, such as those described in document U.S. Pat. No. 5,549,127 in particular, these spaced teeth are curved and substantially aligned with the jaw on the side opposite the first edges and the teeth of a first jaw have their concave side facing the teeth of the other jaw.
To hold the hair correctly, the teeth of the two jaws are generally shaped so that they can penetrate the hair and cross over therein, close to each other, and thereby grip locks of hair to be held in position.
The teeth are generally close together, and in practice there is a relatively large number of teeth, at least around a half-dozen teeth on each jaw, which provides a large number of closely spaced hair gripping areas. It has become apparent that the hair is heavily loaded in these hair gripping areas, which leads to the risk of damaging the hair, and this risk is more accentuated if the adjacent hair gripping areas are close together.
Furthermore, a good hold on the hair requires relatively thin teeth which penetrate the hair without significantly deforming it. As a result hairs in the vicinity of the hair grip are not significantly displaced, and the esthetic effect of the hair grip is limited to the area it occupies.
Hair grips for holding locks of hair in place during permanent waving are described in document FR 557 331 A or in document FR 934 493 A. The teeth are elongate, only slightly curved, aligned with each other, and do not provide an effective permanent hair grip on the hair.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 1,819,667 A describes a device for waving hair having two toothed jaws each having a toothed secondary member movable longitudinally to wave the hair forcibly. The teeth of the secondary members are divergent and only slightly curved, and the device is not suited to an effective permanent hold in the hair.
An object of the invention is to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art hair grips by enabling a permanent firm hold on locks of hair by a hair grip which minimizes the hair gripping loads likely to break hairs and advantageously has an improved esthetic effect.